LogiKing Review: Match Wits Against Your Opponent In This Unique Game of Deduction

I’ve played a lot (read, a metric ton) of deckbuilders over the years. I love games with cards and relish the chance to try out new strategies, which is why I was the person at HPP tasked with reviewing LogiKing. Developed by FuRyu and Art Co, it’s a very unexpected take on the genre. While it does nominally feature cards, it couldn’t honestly be called a deckbuilder. The reason being that there’s no actual customization of a deck of cards. No, you and your opponents each have the same set of 10 cards. Your goal is to use them to win a game of deductive strategy before they do. And while it’s a novel and refreshing take, it’s also one that left me wanting much more.

Pick a Card, Any Card

LogiKing’s strength is the simplicity of the game. You only have ten cards, and each one is unique. They’re numbered from 0 to 9, and each card also has a unique effect when played. The complexity comes with the goal of each match. You and your opponent pick two different cards and place them in hidden zones. While the person who played them can see them at all times, their faces are totally hidden from your opponent. Your objective, then, is to “attack” the card by guessing which number it is. If you manage to do this with both of your opponent’s hidden cards before they guess yours, you win. Simple, right? Well, yes and no, thankfully.

Each turn, you also need to activate one of your other cards. This can be very beneficial since each one has its own effect. Some will let you destroy cards in your opponent’s hand, others move cards around, replacing what you have hidden, some prevent your opponent from attacking for a turn, and one even negates the next card effect they play. There’s a ton of welcome variety, but once you’ve played a card, they stay face up on the board, unless you manage to move them back to your hand with an effect or swap them into a hidden zone. By far, my favorite card was number 4, ‘Wand of Truth’, which would reveal whether a hidden card was numbered 0-4 or 5-9, helping me guess along with the process of elimination.

One Isn’t The Loneliest Number…

There’s a single-player mode to help you learn the ropes, though not much in the way of a tutorial. Thankfully, it’s pretty intuitive, and you do get taught the barebones mechanics. Each of the single-player matches is against an AI opponent, which get progressively more challenging and luckier at guessing your hidden cards. What surprised me is that the single-player mode isn’t the star of LogiKing. No, it’s actually Multiplayer mode.

Now, I’m not necessarily against multiplayer gaming, even though it’s not my favorite thing. I just tend to prefer robust single-player offerings that are buttressed by multiplayer, not the other way around. Especially when the multiplayer is pretty much singularly focused on Ranked play. Sadly, that’s entirely what you can expect from LogiKing, other than Private matches with friends. And while it can be fun playing strangers online, without an actual deckbuilding component, there’s not much incentive to play online for very long other than increasing your Rank.

Pretty Little Pictures

Visually, LogiKing is surprisingly polished and impressive. Each of the ten cards has a stunning visual design, and you can even unlock alternate card art for all of them, not to mention changing up your sleeves. Musically, the game is very dramatic, with fantasy music and bombastic effects keeping you engaged with the action. Even if the game itself is relatively barebones, it’s an attractive product.

Ranked Shmanked

Ultimately, the thing that hurt LogiKing the most is how simple it is. After you’ve played it for a half hour, you’ve seen everything there is from the game, other than minor unlocks and achievements. What hurts the experience more is the translation. Put simply, it’s pretty awkward. The game encourages you with “Let’s Thinking!” at the start of each game, which made me cringe. I also got irritated when my guesses of hidden cards were met with a demeaning “Not Logical,” regardless of how informed they were.

Not Logical

LogiKing is a novel concept and a fun enough experience, but I can’t shake how barren it feels. In many ways, I think this game would have fared better as a technical demo than a full-fledged game you have to pay for. While I can respect the overall polish and strategy present in the game, ultimately, I was disappointed there wasn’t more to do.

Final Verdict: 3.5/5

Available on: PC (reviewed), Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5; Publisher: FuRyu; Developer: Art CO, FuRyu; Players: 1-2; Released: August 23, 2023; MSRP: $14.99

Editor’s note: The publisher provided a review copy to Hey Poor Player.